Patent suit loss could hurt Kodak’s auction

With Kodak’s bankruptcy, the company is attempting to sell off two large patent bundles. The company has had difficulty raising the interest in its patent auction that had originally hoped. Kodak’s chances of making a big payday on its patent auctions are now even less likely after the photography giant lost a key patent suit in court.

The blow to Kodak was more than simply losing in its intellectual property case against both Apple and RIM. The court ruled that the patent, which Kodak had been making money licensing already, was invalid. The patent in question has to do with the way images are previewed on digital cameras and is one of the about 1100 patents Kodak is trying to sell.

With one patent in the portfolio been ruled invalid, bids will likely be significantly lower than they would have previously. Kodak’s says that the patent in question had been ruled valid in prior cases, and that it intended to appeal the ruling.

“Any time one of your prime assets is considered invalid, it hurts the overall value of your patents in a major way,” says Dean Becker, chief executive of ICAP Patent Brokerage.